I love the sound of a wah pedal. I have used it for many years while playing electric guitar. I decided to give it a try with my nylon string. I’m using a Crybaby Wah pedal…
Here are a few of my favorite Wah moments….
Sweet Child O’ Mine solo by Slash. This is the solo that got me into playing guitar. The wah pedal begins around the 3:03 mark.
Voodoo Child by Jimi Hendrix. The classic wah opening and he uses the pedal on and off throughout the piece. I couldn’t find the studio version on Youtube but check it out for the beautiful wah wah pedal opening.
Gory Head Stump by Buckethead. Buckethead uses a ton of wah in many of his songs. He begins using the wah around the 2:21 mark.
For this video recorded the drone first. I recorded myself singing and playing a B (second fret, fifth string) and then I stretched it out by using the Paulstretch (I LOVE THIS EFFECT) on Audacity. I then used headphones and recorded this improvisation over the drone.
I am currently composing 10 etudes for the classical guitar. I am writing them for myself, to become a better guitarist, and I am also composing them for anyone interested in incorporating new techniques in their playing. Extended techniques are a great way to increase the expressive nature of this beautiful instrument.
So what do I think about while I improvise? Short answer is…not much. That’s the ideal–just let the music flow. The arrangement is in A minor so I figured I would improvise in A minor before going into the theme. Every now and then I’ll hit an unexpected note and the challenge is to make it fit. For example, around the 2:24ish mark I hit a C-sharp which I wasn’t planning on. The C-sharp would give the feeling of A major which is something I wasn’t looking to do. After I hit the C-sharp I decided to hit it again and then move down chromatically to the E. That’s the decision I made in the second or two after I hit that C-sharp. Little things like this are what I think about while I am improvising.
Here is the ending of my 8th Lament. Last year I composed rough drafts of twelve laments. I am currently going through and expanding them. I am currently through eight of them.
This one uses tapping with the right hand to play the bass part. Tapping is fun and is easier to get a good sound on an electric guitar than a classical. When you tap the bass strings on a classical there is a lot of noise. If you tap on the upper three strings it’s tough to get a loud enough sound. Here is the score for this section…
Ok, so 10 days ago I went and saw Buckethead at the Intersection in Grand Rapids, Michigan. I dragged my oldest child along (Andy age 16) so I wouldn’t be alone.
I fully expected to go and see Buckethead along with 50-100 fellow guitar geeks. I was way wrong on that. The place was filled! All different ages, genders, and nationalities. It was amazing and awesome.
He is somebody I have been listening to a lot the last couple of years and is somebody I am convinced is a genius. He is some kinda productive having released over 300 albums.
The first time I ever heard anything about him was when he joined Guns n’ Roses way back in the early 2000s. I remember my brother saying, “what??!! they replaced Slash with somebody who wears a KFC bucket on his head???” Slash is one of the reasons I started playing the guitar. I heard Sweet Child O’ Mine and I was like….I gotta learn that! Anyways…
5 or 6 years ago I started catching some of Buckethead’s videos on Youtube. Slowly I began checking him out more and more. I am currently making my way through his pikes. I started a few days ago and today I finished Pike 6.
If you are interested in learning more about Buckethead I would check these two sites out on Youtube by a couple super fans…
Here is my favorite concert of his that I have found on Youtube…
Finally….
I’m thinking about seeing Buckethead AGAIN in concert. A week from tonight (05/17/2019) Buckethead is playing in Cincinnati AND my brother lives in Cincinnati. Good enough reason, right? I’m like 80/20 I am going. I’ll probably bring Sam (age 12) with me. I’m sure his teachers won’t mind him missing school for some culture.
This piece is a half composed/half improv piece. The chord progression for the repeating section was composed ahead of time (Am, Em, Gm, Em, E) but the in between sections are improvised–sort of. I wanted to make use of tapping, so, in the score, I wrote, “tapping.” The specific notes weren’t worked out ahead of time. Here is the score I wrote…
What I love about this type of improv is that I am giving it some direction. It’s very easy to improv and kind of meander around without making much sense (which I actually like as well) but in this case I kind of put a frame around the improvisation.
In the Hall of the Mountain King is a great piece by Edvard Grieg that comes from the play, Peer Gynt. It’s always tough to make arrangements of orchestral pieces so for this one I follow the main melody in the piece. I included this arrangement in my second volume of easy arrangements. Here is an orchestral version of the piece…
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